The poison paradox
John Timbrell
Oxford: OUP 2005 | Pp348 | £19.99 each | ISBN 0 192 80495 2
Reviewed by Alan Dronsfield
The supplementary title for this book, Chemicals as friends and foes, tells us what the author is trying to do: he explains how chemicals, used properly, can enhance our quality of life, but in some circumstances the same substances can have a disastrous effect. Typical examples from medicine include paracetamol and aspirin. Both are valuable, cheap pain relievers in sensible doses, but lethal poisons when taken in larger amounts. Ethanol is a source of energy, a disputable social lubricant and a surprisingly effective antidote for ethene glycol poisoning. Yet a bottle of whisky contains enough C2H5OH to poison an individual if it is consumed over a relatively short sitting.
Dozens of chemicals are discussed, including a few like the dioxins, the ‘friendliness’ of which have yet to be established. The author is not a ‘doom and gloom’ merchant. When he deals with the rise and fall of the insecticide DDT he points out that not a single human fatality was associated with its use. On the other hand, the well-meaning banning of this substance has resulted in thousands of deaths – some associated with the toxicities of the organophosphates that replaced it, but mainly from the re-emergence of mosquito-borne malaria that hitherto DDT was effectively controlling.
Timbrell’s style is reminiscent of that used in InfoChem. The book could be read confidently by a sixthformer or scientifically literate member of the public.
Sadly, the publishers seem to have decided that including chemical formulae and equations would deter potential readers from buying the book. So all we have is a single Berzelius-derived formula, H2O, and a couple of ball and stick representations for benzene and phenol, and that’s it. A pity, in my view.
Nevertheless, this is an attractive, novel book well suited for school and public libraries. The poison paradox will appeal to enquiring individuals who want to know more about the chemicals they are constantly encountering in their everyday lives.
